Werewolf vs SHIELD
by Kinners
Summary: What's the best way to hide a dark secret? To tell it so casually that nobody believes you. Kinners's darkest one is finally revealed under the dread light of the full moon, making the Avengers question the reality of the situation. How can their ditzy little friend be such a monster? Maybe she isn't after all. (Ties in to my 'Kinners vs. S.H.I.E.L.D.' fanfic)
1. Chapter 1

Loki walked the dimmed halls of the helicarrier with a nervous step, careful to keep his invisibility up as he prowled. This night was giving him a sense of foreboding that he didn't like. Undoubtedly it was the full moon that he'd been anticipating all week. He knew _why _he was on edge, but he didn't understand _why_. He shouldn't be this nervous, and he knew that-after all, Kinners couldn't _really_ be a werewolf. They didn't even exist on Midgard, if at all. She was always trying to make herself more mysterious than she truly was, but he could always see right through her. And he did not see a wolf.

Au contrare, he saw a friend.

But at the same time, there was that pesky glimmer of faith in the back of his mind. She talked about being a werewolf so naturally, and he of all people would be the first to know that she was a terrible liar. Perhaps it was such an old lie that she told it without any reaction at all anymore. Perhaps she even _believed_ it.

But there had to be some fine line of truth, didn't there?

"Beautiful night out, huh?" murmured Clint. Loki rolled his eyes and stopped-between Hawkeye and Black Widow, he couldn't brush past them without being noticed. They were holding hands, too. He almost gagged. Natasha nodded, a shadow of a smile on her lips. Only a shadow.

"Tony sure knows it," she muttered, shaking her head with an eyeroll. "He's so drunk he'd down a molotov, match and all. Did you see him hitting on the new girl? He's three times her age."

"Stupid is as stupid does," whispered Loki under his breath, eyes narrowed. That Stark imbecile was barely tolerable as it was. It was good for Tony that Kinners would tolerate anything for her friends. It still escaped Loki how she could stand such mortal idiocy, however.

"Stupid is as stupid does," echoed Hawkeye. Loki smirked to himself-he loved doing that. Nothing made him feel better like fooling someone. "out in the moonlight and everything. Who does he think he is?"

Loki's blood ran cold.

_Moonlight?_

Instinct seized the controls. Completely forgetting his magic with his urgency, he bowled over the two lovers in a breakneck sprint. What was he doing? Why was he so terrified of something that wasn't real? Was his inner truth sense so faulty that in his core, he truly believed?

Perhaps that was why he was running. Because he knew that she was a terrible liar. And because he knew that she wouldn't lie to him.

That spark of faith had fanned into fear. But he didn't know the meaning of the word, not really. Not yet. No one truly understands fear until one has been hunted.

* * *

Kinners chuckled to herself, rolling her eyes at Tony. He staggered around in one of his older suits, waving a beer bottle around like nobody's business as he raved about everything from polar bears to the quality of his socks. He got so excited that he actually shattered the bottle with his grip, swearing in surprise and staggering backwards. She couldn't help but burst out laughing at that. After all, what are friends for? Laughing at you when you're being an idiot so that you can tell the difference.

She looked behind her at the sound of an opening door, taking in the silhouetted old-school leather jacket and khaki cargo pants in a heartbeat. Steve. He stepped out of the doorway and let the door shut behind him with a pneumatic hiss, cocking an eyebrow at Tony.

"He's something, ain't he?" he muttered to her sidelong. Kinners nodded, raising an eyebrow and giving her skewed smile that meant: _Uh. _Yeah.

"You shaddap!" slurred Tony, almost falling over. She and Cap figured simultaneously that they should help him out before he hurt himself. They stepped out of the shadow of the helicarrier's bridge, but the touch of the moonlight stopped Kinners in her tracks as surely as a brick wall. A shiver rode up her spine, and she was suddenly hyperaware of herself. Her conscious mind screamed at her to get out, but its voice was muffled, as if from far below her. She only heard one voice clearly.

_Turn towards it._

She turned slowly, deliberately into the full embrace of the moon.

The night was gorgeous. Luna had surely outdone herself this night. The stars were scattered to the four winds, as clear as day without city lights anywhere near to outshine them. But the moon was even better...or worse, depending on your point of view. A perfect circle, dappled with grey, casting its gentle silver over the clouds around them and the helicarrier itself. Anything would look gorgeous in that divine light. But Kinners herself was something else.

Loki burst out the door, breathing heavily with his exertion. He froze, held in place for a breathless moment by Kinners. Even in a wrinkled t-shirt and ragged jeans, the look on her face was indescribable. Her hair seemed to float of its own accord, as if she were underwater. She shut her kaleidoscope eyes and took a moment to just breathe. She was beautiful.

But soon she would be terrible.

She doubled over with a grimace, as if she had been shot in the gut. Growling, she stumbled onto her knees, convulsing as if she were about to vomit. She held herself up from the steel floor with but a hand, making pained noises in deeper and deeper tones. She began to grow, muscles bulging under her suddenly skin-tight clothes and snapping the feeble fabric. Hands lengthened into lethal claws, skin gave way to shaggy fur, face lengthened into muzzle. She bowed her head in her agony and gave the most pitiful utterances of pain, but Loki knew that she would lash out at any moment, regardless of any physical torment she may be experiencing. Yet somehow he couldn't bring himself to move away, to save himself. He felt displaced, almost, strangely calm. Maybe she _was_ lying. It all felt like a dream.

Then he noticed Tony toddling towards her.

"Who invited _you_, Banner?" he drawled, poking the beast with what remained of the bottle. Next thing they knew Tony was flying across the deck, three gouges ripped in the torso of his suit.

Not a dream.

What used to be Kinners rose to her hind legs and threw her head back in a howl. The note rang out, long and clear and bone-chilling, freezing time for an eternal moment. There was only a silver patch on her chest to break up the robust brown of her pelt, a patch with such iridescence that it was as if she had stolen a chunk of the moon for herself. She brought herself back to earth and settled into a supple hunters' stalk, turning to Loki. The only thing to identify her as his old friend were her greenish eyes, looking more like a cold gray in the night. She snarled at him, the trademark warmth replaced by a cold predator's instinct.

"Get down!" shouted Cap from the other side of the beast, heartbeats before she met her mark. Loki ducked to the side at the last moment, but she skidded with her claws on the metal to turn on a dime, throwing up sparks that illuminated her toothy muzzle. She lunged again, but then he wasn't there. She only wasted half a moment with her eyes before shutting them and reverting to her sense of smell. The fear scent was almost overpowering, and its source was making a beeline for the door.

If Loki had been a hair slower, he would have been dead.

Slamming the door behind himself, Loki put his back to the reinforced hatch, letting Kinners slam herself against the door and taking a moment to calm his pounding heart and pulsing lungs. Though his eyes were wide open with fear, he barely noticed Hawkeye drawing an arrow and Black Widow raising her handgun-even though both weapons were aimed directly at his chest.

"What were you doing out there?" asked Natasha shortly. Loki was about to serve an explanation along with his cold glare, but none was necessary after what used to be Kinners pounded a basketball-sized dent in the wall inches from Loki's head. He whirled and backed away, wincing slightly at the volume when another dent appeared where his midsection had been. More appeared. He kept backing up.

"What _is_ that?" demanded Clint. Loki was too fear-stricken to bother responding-that's a first. He noted with a hint of smugness that Hawkeye sounded just as terrified as he did.

"Another hit, and that door's coming off," predicted Black Widow. They all waited for a breathless moment, waiting for the final blow. But it never came-what did come were the sounds of a familiar technology and several pointed noises.

"Of all the nights Tony decides to get drunk," muttered Loki to himself, slinking up to the door. Trying to still his pounding heart, he heaved it open, wincing at the grating that the mangled door made against the frame. But Kinners-or the wolf, depending on your point of view-was distracted by someone else.

The wolf seized Iron Man by the hand that had just fired a laser into her chest and slammed him into the ground. Loki winced inwardly, slightly reminded of the way the Hulk had treated him after his attack on New York. Iron Man desperately attempted to scramble to his feet, but his face was shoved back into the floor for his trouble. The wolf raised a bloody claw into the air, the moonlight illuminating it perfectly before the final, fatal blow.

She roared in pain and recoiled backwards, a carbon-alloy shaft run straight through her paw.

"Get away from it, Tony!" called Steve as Clint drew another arrow. Captain America and Black Widow rushed at it to give it a different target, while Barton provided cover fire to distract the wolf. Loki decided to vanish, although it had already been proved that the illusion was ineffective on the wolf. Old instincts die hard. Arrows rained on her, the werewolf's frustration scrawled on its face in a vehement snarl. Cracking one eye open a smidge, the first thing it saw was Agent Rogers. Recognizing it as an enemy, it pounced, but rather than getting to rip the living hide off of Steve, it got intercepted in midair.

Everyone was surprised when Iron Man tackled the wolf midleap, having considered him too drunk to understand the direness of the situation. Apparently almost dying twice had knocked the alcohol right out of his system-or at least, out of his brain. For the moment. His eyes squinted shut out of fear, he wished he had the coordination to shut off his audio receptors at the shrill sound of the beast's claws grating on his back and its vengeful roars in his ear. But instead he resolved to tighten his grip around its torso, until they both collided with the floor. Using a mind that nobody realized it had, the wolf twirled in the air to use Tony to cushion her own landing. Bonus-at the awkward angle and the intense velocity, his arm and the armor encasing it bent all at once with a metallic snap.

Tony cried out in pain, which for him meant a loud swear word with a choked sob for a grace note. Everything from his mid-bicep down felt as if it were being set on fire from the inside, yet strangely numb at the same time. No wonder he swore. Using their inertia to her advantage, the wolf dug her claws into the metal and swung Tony's body back at the two oncoming Avengers. Not even Black Widow had the reflexes to avoid him, it was such an unexpected move. She and Steve saw stars at the impact, flattened by Tony's weight. Their hearts jumped to their jugulars; with two of them trapped by a crippled hunk of metal, the wolf could kill all three of them in moments. They struggled to get out from under him, blood racing with adrenaline. But if she had intended to kill them, it wouldn't have mattered, because by the time they had freed themselves she would have been upon them. So what happened?

Hawkeye happened. Realizing that Natasha and Steve were as good as dead if the wolf decided to come for them, he revitalized his rain of arrows. She grimaced and turned her face away, dashing off to the side in an attempt to escape the incessant pricks of pain. She was surprisingly nimble, so most of them whizzed past her without so much as a hair nicked. But that was only because she was moving with breakneck speed. She bolted for the edge of the main complex, but somehow lost herself in the shadows. Hawkeye jogged a stride or two closer, but he didn't dare go any farther-who knew how far that wolf could jump?

By now Black Widow and Captain America had liberated themselves, supporting Tony between them. Still not quite grasping the reality of the situation, Hawkeye made for them, watching numbly as Natasha put her fingers to her ear.

"We need a med team out here, now, Stark is injured bad," she barked. Tony was either swearing under his breath or whimpering-possibly both.

"Copy," replied Coulson's voice in her ear, slightly fuzzy. But definitely real. "What's your status?"

"The rest of us are fine," assured Black Widow. "though we won't be so lucky next time. I'll brief you when we get inside."

"Any idea what the $# happened to Kinners?" asked Captain America. Hawkeye shook his head, running his hand through his hair and realizing for the first time how late it was and how tired he was. Not the last time.

"Only thing I've seen that's anything like that is the Hulk," sighed Clint to himself. "On the bright side, it doesn't seem to like pointy sticks launching at it at 350 fps."

"That's the only thing that saved us," observed Natasha. Though her face was stone, Clint knew that it was something special for her to laud him at all. "If you hadn't drawn its attention, we would've been dog food."

"_Dog food?_" echoed Cap. Hawkeye had no idea what she was talking about, either. She looked at them both for a moment, her eyebrow creeping up her forehead as the moment dragged on.

And the penny drops.

"No way," stated Hawkeye as flatly as he could, struggling to keep the fear out of his voice. "There's no way. Kinners? No. She's a sweetheart. She's not..._that._"

"We've seen weirder," pointed out Natasha. "From her _and _from other things."

Nobody could argue that. They were spared the discomfort of carrying on the conversation when the med team filed out of the door, two of which bearing a stretcher. As Steve heaved Tony's moaning corpse onto the linen, Natasha's eyes widened with yet another terror. Something obvious, something that she should have noticed, something that may very well be lethal for all of them.

"Where's Loki?"


	2. Chapter 2

Loki jumped at the sound of a rusty engine backfiring somewhere down the corridor. His own heartbeat grew to fortissimo, his breathing ragged. He took a deep breath and reasserted himself, though his fear still creeped at the back of his mind and at the edges of his vision like a predator he knew was there but couldn't shake. He felt so..._hunted_. He knew that in all likelihood, it wasn't he who had to search for Kinners-undoubtedly his fear stench would lead the beast right to him. No matter how silent he was, how potent his invisibility charms were, there was no way he could fool that monster. Not this time.

Which is truly what scared him. All his life, he'd faced enemies far greater than this, both in number and in power. But in a way they had been easier, because he could always duck out of existence for a moment and get his bearings. In this game of cat-and-mouse, or wolf-and-prey, rather, the tables were turned. The wolf could find him with or without clever tricks, and he had to rely on only his own intuition to discover her before she discovered him. An intuition he didn't wholeheartedly trust. In fact, she was probably stalking him right now. She might as well be breathing down his neck, her breath warm and carrying a slight odor of peppermint, left over from her ridiculous strike on smoking that was more a cry for attention than something with lasting affect...

Oh, wait.

Loki froze in terror, not daring to turn around. The hairs on the back of his neck stirred with the air disturbance. In a Jurassic Park-esque moment, he felt that if he moved the wolf would pounce upon him. Of course, it was about to do that anyway, so it's good that Loki acted when he did.

He sprang forward, hearing the lethal jaws snap on empty air a hair's breadth away from his nape. He whirled around to face the beast, but it had vanished in the dark. Not even the benevolence of moonlight could penetrate this deep into the inner workings of the Helicarrier. His eyes had nothing to work with. He could hear a rumbling growl, but the acoustics down here reverberated the accursed sound so that he couldn't pinpoint its true source. His options were limited, but a flash of ingenuity saved his life once more.

Setting his hand out in front of him, he summoned the one thing that could banish the dark-and his fear thereof.

A globe of light blossomed in his palm, rays the warmth of daylight flooding the hall gloriously. The wolf was illuminated before him in pristine quality, even as it shied away from the sudden brightness. Loki's moment of calm was short-lived, however. After all, just because he could see it didn't mean he was out of its claws yet.

It lashed out at him blindly, very nearly gutting him. He had to fight every instinct to turn and run, knowing that it would be upon him in moments if he chose to do so. It mumbled to itself in an almost Kinners-like way, blinking to adjust its eyes to the bright. Momentarily, it was stunned into a lack of violence. He decided to act on it while it lasted.

"I know you're in there," he muttered, half to himself. The wolf snarled in reply as if arguing. "You think you're invincible, you big bad wolf, you, but you said so yourself: I am _not_ a god. And you are not a beast...at least, not a mindless one."

The wolf watched him warily with almost intelligent eyes, a suspicious growl rising in her throat. She began to back away, her four paws making no sound save for the tiny click of claws on steel. In the back of his head he thanked his lucky stars that it hadn't thought to interrupt him with a bite to the throat. Perhaps it could be reasoned with. He stretched a hand out towards it, praying that it didn't notice how that hand trembled, meanwhile holding the light-giving hand closer to him as if it were a shield.

"Is there…," he had to gulp to wet his throat against his nerves. He forced himself to speak slowly, calmly-if she couldn't smell his fear, she would certainly hear it in his voice if he permitted it. "...a way to change you back? An Achilles' Heel, of sorts? Anything I can work with to take you down? Or, at least, to not die by...by your claws?" Asgard above, he had no idea she could be so terrifying. He then realized that, if anyone, Bruce and Tony had been given such information during their scientific conferences. Perhaps he should have stayed with the others rather than following his own pride. He mentally cursed himself for, for once in his life, being as foolish as his bullhead brother. The main reason that usually Thor did that and he didn't, however, was that Thor had the muscles to save his own skin. Loki couldn't say that for himself. He wished that Banner or Stark were here, to use their powers of intelligentia to find a weakness behind those lethal fangs. Or at least provide another target for the wolf.

His wish was granted.

A full–throated roar rang through the Helicarrier's underbelly. Loki practically jumped out of his skin, his heartbeat surging in raw fright. The wolf's pupils narrowed to mere pinpricks in the space of an instant, its nostrils flaring. It sensed that it had let its guard down, and as the nearest living being Loki would surely be the first to pay for that.

It pounced on him and his light went out, holding him to the ground with a grip like death and claws like iron. But instead of ripping his lifeblood out of him, it held itself low to the ground, sniffing the air cautiously. The way it stood over him seemed almost...protective somehow. But why would it act so, when moments ago it had been on the brink of annihilating him (and possibly devouring)?

He shuddered. Best not to think about being eaten when it's still very likely that you will be.

The wolf suddenly was gone, slinking away into the shadows with an alien calm. He scrambled to his feet, dreading the next thing he would see. If that horrid noise wasn't the wolf, than it was the Hulk. The last time he'd tangled with that green beast, it hadn't been pleasant.

Speaking of which.

The green beast stood a good sprint away, locking him in its sights.

It gave another bellow, stomping towards Loki with all the delicate grace of a charging elephant. He was frozen in place with terror, something that had never happened before. He hadn't the faintest clue what to do with his buzzing adrenaline. The wolf did.

Out of nowhere, it tackled the Hulk around the neck, digging into his flesh with its claws and sinking into his jugular with its jaws. The Hulk protested as loudly as it could as their momentum swung them into the wall, the noise of both the roar and the impact nearly shattering Loki's eardrums. He thrashed to throw it off of him, but it held on with a skill that surpassed that of a brute beast, as if this were some demented piggy-back ride. When the Hulk had the sense to reach behind himself to grab it, he was rewarded with a slash across the palm. Finally, voicing his frustration with deafening volume, he body-slammed itself into the ground.

The wolf was two steps ahead of him, having the sense to pounce off of his back before it got itself crushed. It growled, pacing back to give itself some room. The Hulk got to his feet, purple-tinted blood oozing from numerous wounds. Loki threw up an illusion instinctively, noting with a tinge of confusion that the wolf had put itself between him and the Hulk. What used to be Bruce Banner glared right through the wolf into Loki's heart, so it seemed, the radiation that fueled the mad mutant seeping into the very air. It stomped furiously and gave a deliberate battle cry, the sheer force of the sound giving Loki a deathly chill.

_**"BAD DOG!"**_

Evidently, Loki was more of a scaredy-cat.

Overwhelmed by the raw power clashing before his eyes, he turned and ran.

Even though she had barely flinched at the Hulk's assorted vocalizations, Kinners's ears pricked at the whoosh of air Loki had displaced. She whirled, staring after him with a frantic sense in her eyes. One could almost hear a pining whimper more befitting to a lonely dog as she leaped after him. But mid-stride, her tail was seized by the Hulk, and with a vehement snarl of her own she almost snapped his hand clean off. He dropped the tail and stumbled back, and she pounced. Fangs bared, eyes livid, Loki forgotten.

Bellows of rage and yowls of pain chased him down the hall, urging him on as surely as if the wolf were on his heels. But he knew that if Kinners _had_ been chasing him, he would have been down already. Yet run he did. That was all he could do. On and on, until he thought his lungs would explode. But the terror kept him going.

But why did he feel...guilty, almost?

He barely registered Captain America in the millisecond when he turned a corner and saw him jogging towards him. He didn't really notice anything until they plowed into each other.

Loki was dimly aware of colliding with something, the sensation of reality causing the mindless adrenaline to ebb slightly. When he fell and felt the impact of the ground against his back, he _really_ came back, with a wince and no indifferent swear. Rubbing the back of his head, he grudgingly took the hand that Steve offered him.

"&amp;%$, Reindeer Games, you were running like hell was on your heels," he observed. Loki gave him a flat-browed glare, never scanty with his sarcasm even with desperate lungs.

"Number One," he began, a stormcloud brewing behind his forehead. "it _was_ hell." Rogers noted with his own pang of fear the spark of recalled terror in Loki's emerald eyes. This so-called god wasn't kidding. From the distant look on his face, he was still reeling from whatever it was he'd just seen. What _had_ he seen? Night like this, he would believe anything.

"And number two?" prompted the agent, cocking his eyebrow under his slightly mussed hairdo. Loki snapped back to reality with one of his finer-quality sarcastic drawls.

"Don't call me that." he growled. With a bitter hand planted on Captain America's chest, he brushed past, nursing his own fear with every step.


	3. Chapter 3

"Found him!"

Everyone looked up at the arrival of Captain America and everyone's least favorite god-except for Tony, who had moved so suddenly that he'd accidentally caused his fractured arm more pain and was now swearing. Loki could feel their eyes on him like sniper scopes, but what did he care? He immediately went to the darkest corner of the room, glaring at the wall in front of him and avoiding anyone's gaze. All the Avengers had been assembled...except for Thor, of course. Thank Odin. No, don't thank him. Thank yourself. Stars above, what did he know about himself anymore?

"What'd you find out, Reindeer Games?" poked Tony. For the crippled one, he was brave in speaking first. Especially to Loki. Having reached his chosen corner, the Asgardian situated himself against the wall as he replied, folding his arms tightly as if it were cold.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't call me that," he stated patiently, shifting his weight onto one foot and casually crossing the other over it. "Try again."

"What'd you find out, _Loki?_" repeated Tony, the emphasis on Loki's name making it clear that he meant 'Reindeer Games.' Still, an improvement, if you lowered your standards. Loki met Tony's eyes for an uncountable moment, letting his tacit disdain sink in, before abruptly looking away as if it were nothing.

"Nothing new," he lamented with a small shrug. "I ran into a four-legged killing machine, but then it was distracted by another killing machine the color of a raw vegetable, so I got away fine. Almost died. Who cares?"

"That raw vegetable is the only reason you're still alive," stated Hawkeye, his dry sarcasm only feeding Loki's ire. "Banner knew that he was the only person who could distract that thing, so he suited up."

"That _thing_ is _Kinners!_" snapped Loki, his temper flaring at such a careless mention of one of his only remaining friends. The room went quiet, from equal parts confusion and fear for what still did not make sense. Loki blinked and looked closer at them, as if he couldn't believe they could be such idiots.

"What, you thought it was some trick of the light?" he snarled vehemently. "Or the air pressure? Oh, _I_ know! Even better, it must've been one of my illusions! Classic God of Mischief, trying to sow discord among the merry troupe of adventurers. Because that worked so well _last_ time."

"Don't act so offended," muttered Natasha, though her face was carefully neutral in keeping with her training. "You're the one who went out there alone. If you'd gotten yourself killed out there, it would've been your fault."

"Well, I don't see any of _you_ trying to get her back," he growled, looking away. Steve looked at Loki with furrowed brows, trying to piece something together that lay just on the tip of his tongue.

"You...she was-" he began slowly. Loki sighed impatiently and glared into his eyebrows, swiftly tiring of the soldier's tentative figuring.

"Yes, she was my friend, too." he stated finally, deciding to stare at the ceiling in an attempt to avoid the eyes of every other sentient being in the room. But the sniper scopes were still there. He could feel their red dots trained on his head and his heart, trying to discern what he was thinking or feeling. All for the purpose of spilling his blood. It was all the same.

But _she_ hadn't been. Why?

"Unlike anyone else," he started, his bitterness fading as he went on. "she actually went to the great trouble of understanding me. I suppose that's what friends do. I wouldn't know, she's the only one I ever really had." The room fell silent. None dared to interrupt his solemn soliloquy. She must not have been such a close friend to anyone else, the way they were politely ignoring him. Why only him?

"And now she's a _thing_," he lamented, the acrimony returning to sour his speech. "a ruthless hunter. A heartless animal. She could kill me. $^#, she could very well kill us all, and she wouldn't even _care_. In fact, I think she will, seeing as there's nothing stopping her. You know you can't keep her out there forever. She's not mindless, she's clever. She's bound to find us somehow, and when she does..."

More silence. Nobody else wanted to say it. Who wants to die, let alone admit it?

"So what do we do?"

Only one who was too well-acquainted with death to be afraid of it anymore.

Everyone looked straight to Captain America. His eyes went from person to person, the look on his face making it clear that he didn't understand why everyone was looking at him like he had just given the Nazi salute. He went to Stark to back him up.

"She told you things about werewolves, didn't she, Tony?" he asked, a tinge of plead in his voice. Startling as if waking up from a trance, Tony took a moment to answer him.

"Not much," he recalled, scowling a little. "Some junk about how there aren't very many anymore, so the ones that are still around are über-violent, and that the only way to turn into one is by getting bitten and surviving. She said something about a potion, and silver, and really bad cramps-"

"Wait, stop," commanded Loki. For once nobody seemed to recall that he was the most hated person in the room. "Silver. That's what it was, silver. Only material that can kill a werewolf."

"_Kill?_" echoed Tony, aghast. Natasha shrugged nonchalantly.

"What else are we good for?" she murmured to herself. Tony was about to snap out a retort to the contrary, but Loki shot first.

"I doubt it'll come to that," he said quickly, his mind on a roll now that he had something to work with. "Like I said, she's smart. If she knows we _can _kill her, even if we don't want to, then she'll at least think twice about a full-on attack. Which is good, because honestly, if she had a mind to attack us head-on she'd rip us to pieces. A potion, though? Could be useful. Do you remember much else?"

"She said it was called wolfsbane or something," Tony continued, kneading his brows in an attempt to glean more from his memory. "I don't know, Banner paid more attention than me. I thought she was joshing us."

"So you _shouldn't_ have sent the Hulk to distract her?" snided Loki with a fake smile rivaling Mycroft's. "What a revelation! Who knew?"

"But!" exclaimed Tony suddenly, snapping his fingers in an epiphany. "We recorded the whole thing! It's all there, in the lab. Maybe she left us something useful."

"Then let's move out." said Cap briskly, stepping out the door. Yet something he saw out there made him freeze in his tracks.

"Rogers?" asked Hawkeye suspiciously. Steve looked back at them with wide eyes, then looked back out at the sputtering electrical panel down the hallway. The only illumination was given by the yellow sparks that fizzled from its mangled conduit. Not daring to believe his ears, Tony sprang to his feet and scrambled to see. He trembled.

"That panel was protected by titanium casing," he whispered shakily. He kept his voice low because with the terror in his voice it was either that or an earsplitting scream. The presumably indestructible titanium casing lay ripped in half on the floor, still spinning slowly from the recentness of the sabotage.

"We're in the dark," gulped Loki, staring through the black window before him. He remembered how useless his illusions had been with a fresh thrill of fear. "It has the advantage in the dark."

"Then why hasn't this room gone-"

Oh, Tony, why did you have to say it?

The room went black.

"Light! Someone!" blurted Loki. He heard people searching pockets and feeling tables frantically for flashlights. Then he remembered that he had his own light to give, and tried to forge through the panic to focus. But try as he might, he couldn't bring his heart rate down or take deep breaths. It was out there. He knew it. It was coming. He could feel its dark purpose exuding, its silent paws on the sleek floor, its keen eyes trained on his throat. How foolish had he been to think Kinners was still underneath that guise of fur and fangs? A monster was afoot. And Kinners was no monster. She was gone, suffocated by the curse of the moon.

Gone? No. She couldn't be.

Hawkeye was the first to bring up a flashlight. He shone it out through the window. It was right there, eyes glowing and ears pricked. And Cap was still at the door.

"_Close the door!_" screamed Romanoff. Steve yanked the doorknob towards himself before she'd even opened her mouth. But there was a paw caught in it, scraping eerily. She roared her pain into Steve's ear, even as they played a life-and-death tug of war. They were too evenly matched, and Steve's adrenaline wasn't enough. The door inched winder and wider open, so wide that she got another claw in to pull. Thinking fast, Steve kicked at one of her paws, but she slashed back at him, missing his shin by a hair. Shaking herself from her paralytic fear, Black Widow shot three rounds into her hand, which finally made her relinquish her hold on the door. Only for a heartbeat. Long enough.

Steve slammed it shut and locked it in the space of an eyeblink. Growling unhappily, the wolf slowly slunk away. Nobody dared to move until the very echoes had died away. Then everyone released breaths they didn't know they'd been holding, slumping against walls or running hands through hair in an attempt to calm down. That had been _way_ too close. But now they were trapped. It knew exactly where they were. All they knew was that it was out there somewhere, watching and waiting until they decided to make their next move. Nobody dared to say it. Everybody knew it. Only Tony was brave-or, perhaps, naive?-enough to speak it aloud.

"Now what?"


	4. Chapter 4

Taking a deep breath, Agent Rogers clicked on the lighter above his head.

The yellow flame flickered uncertainly, as if even it didn't want to be discovered. With the scarce light he took the opportunity to take in his surroundings, as his soldier's instinct demanded. He was in the center of the hallway, facing the opposite direction from the sabotaged electrical panel. Behind him and to the right crouched Hawkeye in the doorway, an arrow with Kinners' name on it nocked and ready. Loki and Natasha were already gone. He turned around and peered down the hallway at the panel, trying to discern Tony's shape in the dark. Either the light must not have been strong enough to reach down the hall or Tony had suddenly learned how to be totally motionless since his life depended on it, because he could not be seen. He turned back, facing down the hallway. Waiting for the signal.

There. Faint, but real. Agent Barton was drumming his fingers on the doorjamb.

"_Hey!_" he yelled, surprising himself with his own volume. His cry echoed down the hallway, filling the helicarrier with reverberating sound. There's no way it wouldn't have heard him. No turning back now.

"I know you're out there!" he continued, with a slightly lesser volume. _Get to work, Tony, I don't have long._ "Think you're the big bad wolf, eh? Think you can scare us?"

He had no idea where he was going with this. But the important thing was that she heard him, not understood him. Gotta keep talking, gotta stay loud. Louder than Tony, or he's dog food. I'm dog food anyway.

Then he realized something. He really _was_ scared. Scared out of his wits. In all his years of war and ruin, he'd never been so terrified. Adrenaline coursed within him, boiling his blood and addling his brain. What to do, what to do? It was his job not to be scared. It was his job to be brave. He was failing. if he didn't do this, the wolf would tear them all apart.

Brave?

Bravery isn't lack of fear. Bravery is controlling your fear.

But what about using it?

"Well, I'm _right here!_" he bellowed, kicking the wall with a booming metallic ring. "_Right! Here!_" Twice more he kicked the door. Everyone was scared now, him most of all. "So come and get me! Big Bad Wolf! _Ha! _Come huff and puff and rip _me_ to shreds, why don't ya?"

Silence. The wolf didn't answer. All it did was watch Tony work furiously at the electrical panel from around the corner and wonder why the heck he was fiddling around with that thing instead of trying to run away like the others did.

Agent Rogers turned around at the sound of a muffled thump.

Tony was gone.

"Stark!" he cried desperately, running out into the dark. But in his haste to rescue his friend, he'd forgotten the frailty of his light. The lighter winked out, and instantly he was surrounded by blackness.

"Rogers?" called out Hawkeye, fumbling for his flashlight. What good were eagle eyes without light to see with? He heard a stifled cry and a thud on the ground before him. Faster than he could even comprehend the horror of what his ears told him, he brought up the flashlight and shone it right into her eyes.

She recoiled from the sudden intensity with a growl, holding up a paw to shield her eyes. She stood over an unconscious Steve, her other claw on his chest as if she were about to drag him away. Or rip him open to eat him alive. Neither were optimal scenarios.

As she began to blink and squint, Hawkeye pulled up an arrow faster than was humanly possible. Problem is, for once in his life, he didn't bother aiming, and it went wide to the left and made a cobweb print of shatter marks in the window across. The wolf spooked at the sound of the glass and the whoosh of the arrow past its ear, turning and bolting down the other end of the corridor. Hawkeye scrambled to his feet, heart thundering and lungs churning. Taking a moment to calm himself to the point of intelligible speech, he tapped his ear-comm.

"Natasha, Cap's down," he reported grimly. She swore to herself out of fear, drawing a quizzical look from Loki as he jogged beside her. "but the wolf's gone. Watch your backs, it's almost definitely coming for you."

"What's his status? And what about Stark?" she asked briskly, diverting her concern to her team for the moment. She and Loki were alive, presently, but the same could not be said for Tony or Steve. Hawkeye put his fingers in to check for Cap's pulse, felt a steady throb. But when he pulled his hand back it was covered in blood.

"Lacerations on neck and shoulders, looks like he was pulled backwards from behind," he reported, not discovering further wounds. "must've hit his head on the floor and gotten knocked out cold. Searching for Tony now."

Remembering Hawkeye's warning, Natasha turned around and scanned the dark with her flashlight. At first she thought she saw a shadow move, but upon closer inspection there was nothing there. Loki sensed that there was some bad news he was missing, but appeared nonchalant and made a left turn. Only one more intersection until Kinners' quarters. It had to be there. If it wasn't, then what option was left for them?

Clint caught his breath when he saw the blood pooled by Tony's unconscious head, but let out a sigh of relief when he found its source: an innocuous but profusely bleeding cut on his temple. Tony had wounds similar to that of Captain America, with mild gashes on his back and shoulders leaking additional blood onto the floor. Sure didn't look pretty, but at least he was alive.

"Tony's fine," he told Natasha. "Same thing happened to him as Steve. That thing is definitely smart."

"Told you," muttered Loki to himself, putting his back to the wall as he peered around the corner. Agent Romanoff checked behind them again, then gave the all-clear to Loki for them to continue.

"We're at Kinners' quarters," she informed, picking up her pace now that the end was in sight. "Hold tight. Romanoff out."

"If the big bad wolf comes blowing down your door, give me a call," grunted Hawkeye as he dragged Tony's body back into the med bay. Convenient that they had gotten trapped in there. The wounds weren't serious, but if untreated the blood loss would have serious medical repercussions.

"Will do," she responded shortly, asking Loki why he wasn't opening the door with a querulous look.

"Ladies first," he offered, raising an eyebrow. The look turned into a mild but definite glower.

"In your dreams," she growled.

He swung open the door.

Though the room held many memories of Speed games and pointless debates, in the dark it seemed haunted. The full moon cast a square of silvery blue through the window beside her bed, looking out over a void of air. Natasha ran the flashlight over the room, not finding anything dangerous but not completely satisfied, either. She walked in and Loki shut the door behind them, not wanting to be snuck up on by something that could disembowel him without making a noticeable noise. He tried the light, but apparently the power outage was prevalent throughout the helicarrier. He turned to find Natasha checking under the bed, raising his eyebrow at her.

"Any monsters under the bed?" he jested, drawing another glower from Black Widow as she got to her feet.

"No, just the one," she replied testily. Ouch. He struggled to find something to say in response as she turned away to continue her perimeter check. Finally he gave a relenting sigh.

"Oh, all right, I deserve that one," he murmured to himself. He decided to look in the bathroom, using his own light seeing as Agent Romanoff didn't seem willing to share. The only thing he found in the medicine cabinet was a slightly stale toothbrush. Nothing under the sink except spare toilet paper. Where could she be keeping it?

He straightened, narrowing his eyes at himself in the mirror. It had been foolish of him to expect to find it in the bathroom-that was much too obvious. Even when she wasn't a predator, Kinners was smart. A substance of such sensitivity would be kept somewhere equally covert. Yet she was simultaneously a practical person, so it would have to be somewhere where it could be easily accessed. Think. You're a werewolf, tonight's a full moon, you have to guzzle your wolfsbane before your friends notice you're missing and go looking for you. You only have time to duck through the door, they're right around the corner down the hall. _Where is it?_

When he turned to reinspect the door, a glimmer of glass caught his eye, reflecting his light's glow.

Exulted by his discovery, he pounced at the same time as the wolf.

For once, it was the Hulk that saved his life. The green behemoth intercepted her mid-leap with a forceful bellow, scaring them so badly that Natasha fired a wild shot through the window and the glass bottle almost slipped from Loki's fingers as he seized it from the secret compartment. With a clipped breath he caught it and held it closer to him, thanking what gods existed that it hadn't shattered in his moment of distraction. A yelp of pain from the hulk, accompanied by a particularly lurid gushing sound, reminded him of his potentially lethal situation. Not a moment too soon.

In a surreally close moment, the wolf careened through the hallway window.

Growling almost akin to a sentient groan, it gave a hearty shake to free itself of the glass shards scattered in its pelt. Despite the thousands of prismatic points, they hadn't pierced her, not being made of silver. Ever the trigger-happy agent, Natasha emptied three rounds into the back of its head with little effect other than its worsened mood. Desperately calling for backup, she was powerless to save herself as the wolf turned on her and lashed out with already bloodtipped claws. She fell with a truncated breath and lay still, the wolf unmoved by the violence. Loki gave a cry of terror, he didn't know for whom, but it had the desired effect. The wolf turned its head to fix him with an all-too-familiar gaze. He didn't know whether to trust it or fear it. He knew he should have feared it, but betrayed in his eyes was a still glimmer of faith. Unfortunately, the wolf saw it as fear. Fortunately, there was a more pressing predicament upon them.

The Hulk, having had no luck with the door, had decided to try to force his way through the way the wolf came. Despite a chorus of pointed shrieks and whines of stressed steel, he only managed to get his head and shoulders through the window frame before he became stuck. The wolf bristled and snarled a challenge, crouching in front of Loki with fangs bared. Frustrated at his self-inflicted captivity, the Hulk roared in their faces, literally blowing Loki back into the wall with the raw force. And then three things happened.

Kinners heard him collide with the bed.

She turned her head at the noise.

And Loki went crashing through the far window into the night.


	5. Chapter 5

Vision returns to me slowly. Slooooooooowwwwwwwwlyyyyyyyy. Not again.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty."

I groan at the tumult in my stomach and twist against the mattress, squinting my eyes against the rays of the mild dawn despite the fluttering blinds that crisscrossed them. Rubbing my claws through the fur between my ears, I give a cavernous yawn, running my tongue over my lips as I get my front paws underneath me. I was about to stretch when I realized that someone had spoken to me. Even better, I could understand their words. Why hadn't my ears followed the sound, then? They hadn't moved at all, not even a twitch. What was wrong with my ears?

I turned my eyes on Natasha Romanoff, her stone face a catalyst for the memories of my existence.

I'm not a wolf anymore.

Groaning, I run my hands-yes, hands-through my hair, the only fur that remains on the outside. But on the inside I know I'm still a monster. I can't believe I forgot my wolfsbane last night. I endangered all my friends, the entire ship. I've been irresponsible before, but this takes the cake. It's like leaving the door unlocked to a whole closetful of soul-sucking skeletons.

"Rough night?" inquired Nat. I thought she would have more sarcasm in her voice than she did, me not being her favorite due to my uncannily perpetual cheerfulness. But she sounded sincere. I would have said concerned if I hadn't known her better.

"You should know," I grumbled, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. I turned my weary gaze on her, trying to ignore my prevalent soreness. "How many?"

My question apparently confused her, but I knew it wasn't in the way she made it out to be.

"What're you talking about?" she inquired with furrowed brows. I gave a heavy sigh.

"Something you know all too well, Black Widow," She visibly tensed, but she wasn't guilty enough to look away from me. Yet. "You're too well-acquainted with death to ignore him. Shall I ask again or will you spare me the shame?"

She bit her lip. For a long time, the only sound was my ragged breathing. But then she spoke.

"Five wounded, including Agent Rogers, Stark, Loki," She shifted to reveal the bloodied side brace that she had been concealing with folded arms. I held my breath. "and of course me. Three dead. We can't say exactly whose was whose because the Hulk was set loose to try and distract you, but he was in control when he shifted, and unfortunately we can't say the same for you. Two died of blood loss because the medical team couldn't get to them soon enough after they were ambushed, and one was…"

"Hunted." I finished for her. She blinked at me, which from her was a rather expressive gesture of surprise.

"Yes," she said carefully. "The body was shredded. It almost looked like it had been...eaten."

That would explain the nausea. Grateful to find a bottled water on the nightstand beside me, I took a hearty swig to momentarily quell my protesting digestive system. Momentarily. I decided to lie back down, deciding against looking at Natasha. I didn't have to to know that she was horrified. She wouldn't express it facially anyway, she was too good for that, but I could feel it. The fear stench is almost palpable.

"That was you?" she inquired, a tone of disbelief in her voice. I gave a bitter chuckle.

"What, did you think it was the Hulk?" I drawled sarcastically. I pulled the comforter closer around me, dropping to a low murmur. "At least it was only three this time."

"_This time?_" echoed Nat. My eyes went to her for a prolonged moment, then returned to stare at my door where Loki leaned on the doorjamb. He didn't look at me.

"Well, _I_ don't know," I said slightly defensively, staring right through him. "I know I've shifted before. I know I've killed. But I don't know who, or how many. Who survived, who didn't, who I orphaned or widowed...at least in your profession, you have some absolution."

My gaze flicked to the pistol at her belt. She opened her mouth to say something, closed it again as if she was rethinking. But speak she did.

"I don't think it makes it any better, if it's any consolation," she replied. I didn't move. "But I...I never thought I would say this, but I agree. If I hurt someone I knew, I would want to know. If there was someone I loved that I had put in danger...completely hypothetical, but still...I would want to know, and I would want to try and prevent it, if that was possible. I guess...I guess you were just trying to protect us. You sure had us fooled, not that that's relevant anymore."

I looked up at Loki, who instantly looked away as soon as I met his eyes. It wasn't my job to fool people. _I_ was supposed to be bad at it.

"I wasn't trying to fool you or protect you," I moaned, blinking back the excess saltwater building on my eyeballs. She looked confused again. "You can believe that, even tell everyone else that that's why I did what I did. But it's not true. I just...I wanted to have an excuse to stick around. I wanted to stay with you guys so bad, and I thought that maybe if you thought I was special, Fury would keep me. So I gave away my greatest secret, but you didn't even think I was being serious. So I laughed along, because I didn't want to scare you. Fat lot of good that did. Fear keeps you alive...but it also leads me right to you, so what do I know?"

Nat was silent. But then she said something I never thought she would say.

"I like you, kid."

Startled, I lifted my head and looked at her better. Was she crying? No, she couldn't be. _I _was the one crying. I must've been imagining things. Or was I? _What?_

"At first, I…," she hesitated, but I didn't show the barest reaction. "honestly, I thought you were annoying. I thought you were fake. I didn't think you took any of this seriously, and that you were just kissing up to the other agents for your own reasons. I guess that's just what anyone would expect from someone too well acquainted with Loki," at this Loki gave an eyeroll, but otherwise was still. "but now I know it was wrong of me to assume you were as bad as him just because you knew him. You're nothing like him. You automatically trusted and loved all of us, even though that makes no sense, but eventually it worked. I guess that's another reason I hated you at first. Maybe I was jealous, maybe I was suspicious. Regardless…"

She looked up at me suddenly. She was definitely crying.

"I've decided to trust you." she whispered hoarsely. "And I'm glad you're my friend."

I nodded and gave her a smile, wiping my own tears away with my polka-dotted bedsheet. I'd been waiting for her to warm up to me ever since I met her. I knew that with the exception of Loki, she was the one that needed a friend most. But just like she'd said, she always kept her distance, which of course made sense because she'd doubtless been compromised in her line of work. Red on the ledger, red she didn't want anyone to see. She wasn't exactly letting me see, but she didn't have to. Her friendship was enough.

"I was wondering when you'd crack," I teased. She chuckled, so I did too. Then I realized how freaking tired I was. Bunching my comforter tighter around me, I mumbled one last request as she got up to leave me in peace.

"Do me a favor."

"Anything, Kins."

"...get the agents to start loading their weapons with silver."

She didn't reply. She didn't have to. She carried on with her exit, and Loki got out of her way to steal her seat. As soon as she had shut the door behind her, I woozily shambled out of bed and booked it to the bathroom to empty my digestive system of the raw human I had ingested the night before.

"Lovely," muttered Loki to himself as I finished, wiping the scraps from my lips with a paper towel and staggering back to my bed. Exhaling heavily, I sat back down on the bed, opting for a seat at the foot so as to be closer to Loki. I had an involuntary shudder.

"My Croft, I hate it when I do that," I sighed in exasperation. Loki gave his best attempt at a comforting-but-trying-not-to-be-awkward hug, but when I leaned into his arm he bit back a wince and took it back. I was instantly suspicious. Looking from his innocent eyes to his now concealed arm, I cut to the chase. With Loki, he'll sidetrack you with scarcely an effort if you don't focus.

"Let me see your arm." I demanded.

"Why?" he inquired, brows furrowing defensively. That's a tell. Like I needed one.

"I need to see your arm." I repeated, with more steel. He continued supporting his threadbare alibi despite the fact that he knew that I knew already.

"No, you really don't need to see my arm." he lied with a backwards lean and a get-off-my-case-you-lunatic look. I unleashed my full dragon glare.

"Loki Laufey-Odinson, whoever the kriff you think you are, let me see your arm. _Now._"

He hesitated, giving me the coal-eyed glower that he saved especially for those clever enough to catch him in the act. But it worked.

Loki relented, lifting it and respectfully looking away like a defeated wolf. I gingerly but firmly took it in my hands, unbuckling his metal arm guard and rolling back his sleeve. At the sight of the wound I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth.

Teeth marks, clear as day. Not just any. Mine. I could count the dried streaks of blood where each fang had punctured and torn.

Loki looked up at me and was visibly surprised to see me crying.

"Kinners," he breathed, taking a seat next to me and putting his wounded arm around me in an uncharacteristic display of friendship. I hugged him back with a vengeful grip, but I sobbed into him, disgusted at myself. How could I have done this to him? His only friend, turning on him and infecting him with her own curse in a fit of spite? As if that weren't enough, what about the others? Tony, Steve, even Natasha? Had I bitten them, too? Were they doomed right along with me? And the three dead? Their families and friends, what about them? Two had bled out slowly, alone in the dark after one penultimate moment of terror. One had been eaten. Alive? Probably. I willfully hunted him down and helped myself out of a mindless need to kill and satisfy something that wasn't there. I didn't even know how much pain I caused. Did they wonder in their last moments what they had done to deserve such a gruesome death?

Did they wonder who had done it with their last breath?

"I forgive you."

"_Don't say that!_" I snarled, burying myself further in him. "You're a monster, and it's all my fault. Don't pretend it's okay just to spare my feelings!"

"I'm not pretending." Loki said calmly. I quieted down ever so slightly, but I still couldn't believe him. He took my silence as an invitation to continue.

"Kinners, you saved my life," he murmured. _What?_ "Do you remember? We were right here, last night. Black Widow and I were looking for your potion to try and change you back, or something like that. You followed us, but the Hulk came after you. You came in here, and then he tried to get in...but he knocked me out the far window. You went after me, seized me by the arm and pulled me back from the brink."

Not daring to believe it, I broke away from him, climbed back over my bed and yanked the blinds back up.

He wasn't lying.

The breeze that the blinds had been quivering in (mental slap in the face for not noticing) became twice as potent. The glass was gone. There wasn't a shard to be found on my bed, so it must have been broken from the inside out. Everything he said was true.

I looked back at him with searching eyes, to which he bestowed his classic tired smile. The one that made him seem so ancient and sad you couldn't help but adore him.

"Yes, you did bite me," he began with a twinge of fear. "and to be frank, I don't know how that's going to work out. I don't know what kind of werewolf I'll be, or how I'm going to deal with it. But I do know that I'd rather be alive and bitten than having fallen to my death without saying goodbye. Thank you."

I bit my lip. I still didn't feel like we were even. I didn't know how Loki's Asgardian body would react to the werewolf virus. Would it have been kinder to let him…?

…no, not at all.

"I believe you," I said finally, putting the blinds back down and edging back towards Loki. I was beginning to be tempted to jump out the open window. "but you don't have to be afraid. Don't give me that look, I know you are, because I was, too, when I was first bitten."

"And I must say you're braver than me." he lamented. Debatable, but I went along with it.

"Right. So I'll help you. It's kinda rough adjusting at first, but nothing to be scared of. It's the least I can do to help you out. Just like you said, it's my fault in the first place."

At that he gave a dry chuckle. I liked his laugh, when it was honest. When it wasn't, it was kind of nauseating. I noticed something on the floor and picked it up. It was my bottle of pink, bubble gum flavored essence of wolfsbane, still with two doses left marked in lines on the glass. Smart of Loki to find it, and lucky of him not to have dropped it out the window. Hefting it in my hand once, I passed it over to Loki.

"You'll need this," I instructed. "Eventually you'll have to place your own order with the brewer, but for now you can borrow mine. I don't know when it'll start, but sometime after you're bitten your body starts mutating and you start having really bad cramps just about everywhere. Not all at once, but it'll get there. You also take this if you don't want to shift on full moons. I don't know how bad it'll get, but for me I could barely function until my first shift and I can get pretty tipsy on full moons without it. And I'm the one that bit you, so...but I don't know. It's different every time, and you're Asgardian, so who knows?"

He was silent for a long time. I assumed he was reflecting, letting the reality sink in. I knew better than to bother him. I was trying to think of things I could say to ease it, but what he asked me next came out of nowhere.

"It's Pinkie, isn't it?" he inquired with a faked dullness to his voice. The coloring must have been a dead giveaway. I smirked.

"You know it."


End file.
